Indoor Entertainment Equipment Buying: The Checklist I Wish I Had Before I Wasted $38,000

If you run an indoor entertainment venue - an FEC, an arcade, a bowling center, a trampoline park - and you're about to buy games or attractions, this checklist is for you.

I've been in charge of equipment purchasing for a 12,000-square-foot venue since 2017. I've ordered machines that didn't physically fit, approved 'cheaper' options that broke within a week, and watched good games sit unused because nobody trained the staff. Rough estimate: $38,000 in wasted budget across five years. Most of it traces back to choices that looked smart at the moment.

This is the checklist I use now. Seven steps, no fluff.

Step 1: Do the floor plan before you fall in love with any machine

You see a driving simulator. It's beautiful. You picture the line of customers. Stop. Measure first.

Check doorway width, ceiling height, turning radius, floor load, power supply, and network drop location. A 30-minute measuring session can save you from paying for structural work later.

In 2019, I signed for a motion simulator without checking the floor load rating on our second level. The unit weighed around 800 pounds. The floor was rated for less than half of that. We paid $2,400 to reinforce the floor before installation. That amount was not in the budget. Yay.

Step 2: Evaluate by revenue per square foot, not ticket price

Once the space is mapped, rank machines by revenue per square foot. The ticket price doesn't matter. What matters is how many plays you can turn per hour in that footprint.

A $3 game that runs for four minutes in a 25-square-foot corner can outperform a $5 game in a 60-square-foot booth with a 10-minute cycle. Track plays per day, not gut feel. Most operator software does this once you set it up correctly.

When we set up our management dashboard, the Bandai Namco Amusement Inc. account team walked us through their revenue report pages. That half-hour saved me a lot of guessing. Even if you don't buy from them, ask any supplier for a screenshot of how they report daily revenue before you sign.

Step 3: Check the support network before you check the price

Now check the support network. Not the brochure support. The real support.

Call their service line on a Friday afternoon. Ask: What is the actual response time? Who does repairs? Do you stock spare parts in this country? Can we buy a spare unit up front? The answers tell you more than a demo unit ever will.

I once bought two redemption machines from a company three states away because the quote was lower. The first unit broke on day four. Day four. The supplier's 'technician' was an outsourced contractor who scheduled a visit 11 days later. The machine sat dead during our two-week school holiday. That's when I learned the real math.

Step 4: Build a balanced game mix - video, tabletop, card, and motion

This is where the checklist gets longer because this is where I got it wrong for too long.

If you have space for 30 machines, don't spend the whole budget on video arcade cabinets. Yes, you need them. But you also need tabletop, card, and motion attractions for different crowd moods.

Video/arcade: Look for titles with strong IP and software that can be updated. Some newer games from Bandai Namco Studio S get content updates over the network, which beats buying a brand-new cabinet when a theme runs stale. Confirm the update plan in writing.

Tabletop: If you have tables, try renting licensed board games by the hour. The Dune board game is a solid example: it draws a specific crowd, keeps them seated, and boosts food and drink sales. Staff need to know the rules. Buying it and leaving it on a shelf doesn't work.

Card games: Don't sleep on fast card games. The question 'how to play 7s card game?' comes up more often than you'd expect. Put a house rules card on the table and teach staff to explain it in 30 seconds.

Motion/fitness: And yes, look at motion equipment. The benefits of rowing machine stations go beyond exercise: they create a competitive, crowd-gathering loop that works for kids and adults. We placed ours near the redemption counter and it became a spectator spot.

Step 5: Budget operator and staff training as a hard cost

Picking a game is easy. Teaching people to run it is work. Skipping that work is how you end up with an expensive cabinet or a dusty board game box.

We bought three tabletop titles, including the Dune board game, and didn't schedule training. The games sat on a shelf for three weeks while the staff treated them like they were in a foreign language. I finally ran a 45-minute walkthrough on a slow Tuesday. After that, the table booked out every weekend. The cost of that session: one hour of my time and a pizza. The cost of ignoring it: zero revenue from a $300 game for the first month.

For card games, make a quick-start sheet. Keep the answer to 'how to play 7s card game?' short. If a staff member can explain it in thirty seconds, you have a sale.

Step 6: Calculate total cost of ownership, not the invoice price

Your list should include: delivery, installation, electrical work, network setup, spare parts, software subscriptions, insurance, the value of occupied floor space, and the lost revenue when the machine is down.

That 'cheaper' $800 difference becomes meaningless when a part is discontinued and your machine stays down for six days during peak season. Missing revenue on a medium-performing machine can easily be $150 per day. Do the math.

Our policy now: quote us the total cost for year one, including the service plan. If a supplier won't put that in writing, we move on.

Add marketing to that number too. You need floor signage, maybe flyers. From public price listings in January 2025, 1,000 flyers usually run $80-$150 online before shipping. If you want to mail them, USPS rates as of January 2025 are $0.73 per First-Class letter and $1.50 per large envelope. Small costs, but they add up.

Step 7: Plan the replacement cycle before you sign anything

Trends shift. A game that pulls a crowd this year can be ignored next year. Ask the supplier: What is the upgrade path? Can the cabinet be converted to another title? Is there a buyback program? For how long will spare parts be available?

For software-driven machines, every SKU should state whether content updates are included. For the Bandai Namco Studio S titles we looked at, updates were part of the plan. But I've also seen other vendors promise that and then not deliver. Get it in writing.

Things I still have to remind myself

Don't ignore the regulatory side. If you advertise a game as a skill game, make sure it actually is. Per FTC advertising guidance (ftc.gov), marketing claims need to be truthful and substantiated. We once promoted a chance-based game as 'skill' and got a pointed comment on Facebook. Not a legal disaster, but embarrassing, and we had to fix the label.

Some of the best money I spent wasn't on machines. It was on moving a wall and adding a power outlet. Layout and infrastructure first, game selection second.

Don't promise universal compatibility. Not every game connects cleanly to every operator system. Check the API or ask for a live integration demo before you commit.

Full disclosure: I don't have hard data on industry-wide failure rates. What I can say from running a venue with roughly 40 machines and five years of purchase orders is that our worst downtime happened on machines without a local service plan. That is anecdotal, but it shaped how I budget.

Final checklist

1. Measure the space and power before shopping.
2. Rank by revenue per square foot, not ticket price.
3. Validate service response time and spare parts.
4. Balance the game mix, including tabletop and motion.
5. Budget staff training as a real cost.
6. Calculate total year-one cost, including marketing.
7. Confirm the upgrade path in writing.

If you're about to sign an order, recheck 3 and 6. Those are the two that cost me the most.